Come Back to Me
by The Golden Owl
Summary: Harry and Severus were happy, but now with Harry's relapse into a drug and alcohol addiction, the strength of their love is tested. Will they survive it or will the things that brought them together, tear them apart? Snape/Harry. Contains strong Drug and Alcohol refrences. Post War. Rating may change.


Severus walked back through the door to his quarters, unsure which Harry would be there to greet him today. Would it be sober Harry? Severus hoped so. He so desperately hoped that he wouldn't be met by drunk Harry, or high Harry. Severus wished for a sober Harry.

Severus was disappointed.

As he stepped into his living room, he was confronted with a familiar sight. Harry was asleep on the couch, a needle lay discarded on the floor and an empty bottle of vodka was resting upon the coffee table. Severus heaved a heavy sigh as he picked up the waste paper bin and walked over to where the needle was abandoned on the floor. He picked it up, along with the empty bottle and threw them away.

Throwing a blanket over his sleeping partner and smoothing the hair off of his forehead, Severus took a seat in his armchair next the the fireplace and waited for his love to awaken from his intoxicated slumber.

The wait was short however because before long, Harry was stirring and Severus was watching him wake from his armchair. Green eyes met black and a guilty expression immediatley overtook Harry's face as he sat up and looked at Severus.

"Well," Harry said after a few minutes of silence.

"Well what?" Severus asked, genuinely confused by the question presented to him.

"Aren't you going to shout at me?" Harry clarified.

"No. I think I would be wasting my time wouldn't I?" Severus replied solemley. "It's never worked before. What I think about all of this hasn't made you stop. I'm just not sure if I can continue in this manner, Harry."

"So what are you saying," Harry asked, "Are you finishing with me?"

"I'm afraid that at this moment in time I can't see a future for us," the older man said, "Not like this."

Harry, knowing that his partner was speaking in refrence to the drugs and alcohol, sighed. "You don't understand."

"No, I don't," Severus uttered as he rose and left for the bedroom. Harry didn't stop him.

* * *

Harry Potter's struggle with addiction started after the death of Cedric Diggory. In the summer before his fifth year when he would spend his days wandering the streets, Harry came across a group of four boys in the park. They would attempt to befriend him, but Harry was uninterested and rebuffed their offers to join them. One day however, he accepted their offer and quickly became close to the four boys who offered him kindness and candor, in a time when no one else would.

The eldest of the group Isaac, came from a troubled home himself. His parents were alcoholics, both living in a constant state of intoxication and fought with each other daily, leaving their son alone on the sidelines. He would often sneak a bottle or two from his parents and present them to his friends who would spend countless hours in the park drinking and badmouthing their caregivers.

Harry quickly discovered that when he was drunk the world seemed better. His pain was numbed and his troubles forgotten. He had never before found something that could make him feel better in the way that alcohol did. He was hooked.

His friendship with the four boys was over all too quickly when Harry had to return to school. He promised to write but never did. He didn't know why he didn't keep in touch. Maybe it was because he didn't need the company of the four boys, for the only companion he really valued was a bottle of Vodka, or whatever else he could get his hands on.

During his fifth year, Harry would resort to stealing. He would use the secret passageways into Hogsmeade to get into The Four Broomsticks, where, under the guise of his invisibility cloak, he would fill his schoolbag with as much as he could.

No one really noticed Harry's problem until after the attack on Arthur Weasley, when Harry started drinking more and more. Over Christmas whilst at Grimmauld Place, Sirius had confronted Harry, but he had denied it. His Professors sometimes thought that their student seemed different, not quite right, but said nothing. Maybe they thought that Harry was just tired, or stressed about his upcoming exams. Who knows? And Dumbledore, who spent the majority of the year avoiding Harry, suspected nothing, for he wasn't there to take notice.

Ron and Hermione? Poor Ron and Hermione tried, but were pushed away. Their friend grew distant from them and after the loss of his Godfather at the end of the year, stopped talking to them completley. His friends perservered but what more could they do when their friend wouldn't let them near. They never stopped caring but could not try to get close anymore, not when Harry would regect every attempt to do so.

When Harry returned to Surrey for the summer he searched for Isaac, but Isaac had moved on. Apparently gone to live with his grandparents in Ireland. The three other boys were also not around. One of them had been in a drunken fight outside a pub and had died after the altercation, and Harry never heard a word about the other two.

So Harry spent the summer in a guilt ridden stupor. His little rescue mission into the Department of Mysteries that night after he had had a few drinks ended in the death of his Godfather and the guilt Harry felt about being drunk that evening, only caused him to drink more in an effort to numb his percieved culpability. The cycle was vicious.

When he returned to school for his sixth year things only got worse. The school was under top security because of Voldemorts return and it seemed to Harry that Dumbledore was keeping him under such close observation that he couldn't sneeze without his headmaster rushing to offer him a tissue. Getting his hands on alcohol was proving itself to be more of a challenge than ever before and Harry found the withdrawl symptoms excruciating as a result. The tremors he experianced when he went without a drink were so bad that he struggled to hold his quill and his handwriting was so terrible that his professors were struggling to read it. Not that what was written was any good anyway. Harry couldn't think straight without a drink in him and his head ached terribly.

The withdrawl only stopped when one night, Harry found himself in the school kitchens searching for alcohol. He eventually found a cupboard heaving with bottles full of the liquid that he craved, stored there for staff dinners and parties. Before long, Harry was sneaking down to the kitchens on a daily basis, just to get his hands on another drink.

He spent much of his time in detention for tardiness, his addiction occasionly causing him to oversleep after a long night of drinking. Sometimes he got the feeling that his Professors knew what was happening, particually Professor Dumbledore, whom would often ask Harry if he had anything he wished to tell him. Harry always responded with a no and his headmaster didn't push the issue. Maybe he didn't know after all. Maybe Harry was so skilled a masking his issues that he had even managed to fool the greatest wizard of all time.

Things only intensified after Dumbledore's death by Severus Snape's hand at the end of the year, the shock of losing his greatest protector doing nothing to quell the storm that was raging inside him. Harry returned home in a worse state than ever before, with nothing whatsoever to cling on to.

He would walk the streets of Surrey all night sometimes, not giving the slightest thought for his safety nor where he was going. One night he came across a man selling drugs in a back alley. He was told it was "good stuff" and paid promptly. It only took that one time. He was addicted.

How he managed to defeat Voldemort he didn't know. Clearly he was more powerful than he realised. Maybe the agression stirred up by the cocktail of drink and drugs in his system was enough insentive to finally put an end to the man that was undoubtably the root cause of all of his problems. Who knows? But he managed it one way or another.

After that the world moved on. People were so busy rebuilding their own lives that no one seemed to give too much thought to the Boy Who Lived. Everyone was getting on with things, except Harry. No, he was still stuck in the same vicious circle that had dominated his life over the past few years, but now that no one needed him. No one seemed to care.

He spent most of his time in pubs and clubs now he was of legal drinking age. One night stands became a common occurance as Harry was so out of his mind on God knows what that he no longer held any respect for himself or his body.

Then one night things came to a head. After another night of heavy drinking in a Hogsmeade pub, Harry stumbled out into the snow. His head light and his vision blurry, he leaned against a wall for support. The last thing he remembered before he passed out was a figure striding towards him.

He awoke the morning after in an unfamiliar setting but the face that greeted him was far from it. Snape. Harry had errupted into a rage after seeing him but was soon overpowered by the taller, stronger and much more sound of mind man. Over the next couple of years the two managed to make amends for the past and both shared in the grief they felt over their losses. Harry finally understood the truth behind the mask of his potions master and slowly but surely, Severus helped Harry to sobriety. It was during Harry's long and painful recovery that the two discovered the feelings they held for each other and they entered slowly into a relationship. They were good. They were sober. They were happy.

But nothing lasts forever.

* * *

AN: Hi everyone. I know it's been a long time since I've written anything but I hope this story can serve as an apology to anyone that has been waiting on me. I know this chapter probably has some spelling errors but my spellcheck is currently not working properly so I apologise. I've done alot of growing up since my previous work was published as you may be able to tell from the subject matter of this story. Please comment and let me know what you think and if you want to see more of this story don't forget to follow. I am right in the middle of Chapter 2 so hopefully an update will be with you either today or tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who has stuck by me while I've been gone. x


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